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For anyone familiar with Jimmy Buffett, “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” is not a new saying. Living it, however, is another thing entirely.
Carl Watson might have an Ambler campus state of mind, but his family is moving to Florida — let the stress begin.
“This has been a tough semester, but it has gone by so quickly. While preparing for finals, I’m finding that I have a lot of stress outside the classroom to deal with as well,” he said. “I’ll be coming back to Temple, so I’m looking forward to getting right back into it during the fall semester, but in the meantime, I’m planning for so many different things. Every day I make a ‘to-do’ list to make sure that everything that needs to get done is actually done.”
With the end of the semester, Carl is heading right to Florida. Before that, however, a great deal of his belongings, both at Ambler and back at his old home in New York have to be packed up to make the trip beforehand. There’s a summer job search to do and resumés to get out to ensure a little income during the months down south. On top of that, there are scholarships to apply for.
“There’s a lot of stress there because a lot of the scholarships have deadlines that are fast approaching,” he said. “Between writing essays and applications and trying to get everything together and get it out, there is a lot to do.”
Oh, and there’s that little issue of finals and end-of-semester papers. In Introduction to Literature there are by its very nature “a lot of books” to read as well, Carl said. The latest on the list — The Thin Red Line, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night.
“I was also working on a paper about Toni Morrison’s The Song of Solomon, relating it to the biblical Book of Solomon,” he said. “Overall, the class went very well. I think all of the students had a great relationship with the teacher, which certainly helps.”
Over in Intellectual Heritage 52, Carl, “finally figured out the premise of the class.”
“It starts with the core philosophers — Aristotle, Descartes, etc. Modern philosophy, modern thought — what we have now — is all rooted in the great philosophers,” he said. “I had to write a paper about that, linking everything we’ve read so far. It’s been a tough course, but worthwhile.”
Math 65 and Spanish 61 have presented no difficulties and American Ethnicity, Carl said, has been “a great experience.”
“Through this course, I’ve developed a greater understanding of diversity and an appreciation for other races,” he said. “I think it’s a great course for anyone to take, not just a certain curriculum or major. It should be required.”
Quite a lot on the plate of a freshman just completing his first full year of college, especially considering the changes going on around him. Of course there’s a lot of positives to multi-state living too, Carl said.
“The sun. Hopefully better weather. A swimming pool. I guess that does mean I have to find the time to learn how to swim at some point,” he said with a laugh. “I’m looking at it as the best of both worlds. I’ll be living in Florida, but during the school year I’ll be here with the friends I’ve made and still be able to see the friends I have back in Brooklyn.”
No matter how things change, that’s one thing about Carl that has remained the same — a positive attitude and a willingness to take things as they come.
“In anything, you need a great support system. A lot of time, for lack of a better term, you might feel like just breaking down from work and from stress, but I’ve discovered that it’s only stress if you make it stressful,” he said. “Basically, I got by with a little help from my friends. I’d e-mail high school friends and have them proofread my essays. They’d force me to get to work when I was feeling less than motivated.”
Strong family support, even from a distance, has also been an essential key to success, Carl said.
“A phone call or an e-mail from your mother or grandmother just saying ‘We’re thinking about you,’ can make all the difference,” he said.
Despite the change in home location, Carl said transferring to another school didn’t even enter his mind.
“I invested too much trying to get here,” he said. “True story — my grandmother and I were watching ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy’ one night and it was a college competition. One of the contestants said they were majoring in journalism and attending Temple. That was when I was in seventh grade and that’s where it all started for me.”
Carl also had the good fortune of bringing some of his support system along with him.
“There are four other people from my high school attending Temple, one at Ambler and three at the Main Campus,” he said.
“Temple also provided me with the greatest support in financial aid. They wanted me here as much as I wanted to be here.”
There was, however, a bit of a false start to Carl’s Temple experience.
“I remember back when I was applying for colleges people were telling me that if you got a thin letter, it was always bad news; the thick letter was the one you wanted,” he said. “And then, there it was, Temple’s letter and it was awfully thin. I had to will myself to open it. Well, it might have been thin, but it said I had made it and now here I am and here’s where I’m planning to stay.”
This is the fourth part of an “A Year in the Life” feature on Carl Watson. Carl, a native of Brooklyn, New York, was a freshman majoring in English at the time of the series.
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